Sts Simon & Jude Parish Community welcomes children seven years of age and older into fuller participation in Eucharist through the sacrament preparation process for receiving Communion and Reconciliation for the first time. This community supports parents as the primary religious educators of their children and as the models most significantly affecting a child’s faith development.

Click here to view our 2011 - 2012 session schedule.

• Requirements
  A child must be at least 7 years of age before the celebration of the sacrament of Eucharist, and must have completed one year of faithful participation in religious formation in a Catholic school or a Catholic catechetical program and be concurrently enrolled in their second year.

• Registration
  Enrollment forms are included in the registration packet for all faith formation classes. The enrollment packets are mailed to all SSJ school families as well. Registration begins in the spring for the preparation classes that will start the following fall. The first session will be for parents only. Learning materials will be distributed and the preparation process will be explained.

No registration forms will be accepted after the deadline stated on the form. Please do not bring any registration forms to the first session.

• Program
  Following the guidelines of the National Catechetical Directory and the directive of our Bishop, Tod Brown, catechesis on the sacrament of Reconciliation is integrated into the process of preparing children for first Eucharist. The first three sessions for parents and children in the fall will be devoted to the sacrament of Reconciliation and the three winter/spring sessions will focus on the sacrament of Eucharist. The actual celebration of either of these sacraments remains at the discretion of a child’s parents.

• Celebration
  All celebrations of first Eucharist will take place during the Easter season. This is the time that the Church celebrates sacraments of initiation. Eucharist is an initiation sacrament, as are Baptism and Confirmation. Eucharist brings our children into fuller membership in the community as they join us at the table of the Lord.

Vicki Gray
Coordinator of Sacraments for Children
(714) 963-0014
E-mail: Email Link